In Our Eyes
by Nocturnea
Summary: A bunch of little mini-stories about the interpersonal relationships in Chrom's army. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AWAKENING! You have been warned. DISCLAIMER: I don't own Fire Emblem or any of its characters etc.
1. Winter Romance

_Yeah, this isn't on my list of fanfics I'm currently allowed to write so as to not get way outta whack with updates, but it IS just a harmless little set of one-shots, so I think I can allow it. Anyway enjoy, if that's something this evokes. This is from my Avatar's PoV, and she hints at the spoiler warning a few times. Also, the chapters of this will skip back and forth in times. Note that I modify some supports and blend together the C/B supports between Avatar and Henry (but I do take a bit of dialogue directly from the game, and it's mostly based on either the Japanese or English supports). And probably bend canon, but that's a given._

~ Valentines Day Special~

- February 4th -

My name is Aesuni Gimurei. I'm about seventeen years old. I'm a tactician, in the service of Prince Chrom of Ylisse. Currently, we're en route to the Mila Tree in the Valmese Empire, to free the Voice of Naga. If you don't know about any of those things, then I suppose you oughtn't be reading this. Sorry to be blunt, but it is the truth.

Anyways, I'm just walking through camp. It's part of my daily routine to check up on everyone, and make sure they're relatively okay and things like that. Before you accuse me of wasting valuable strategy-planning time on sentiment, allow me to say that this practice helps me to decide who shall or shan't be deployed in the next battle. Poor Donny has had to be sidelined quite a bit due to frequent illness. After all, it wouldn't do for someone to fight exceedingly poorly and either be killed or pass out from exhaustion.

I notice that Chrom looks rather flustered, and is darting in and out of tents with crumpled pieces of paper in his hands. I shrug it off. Whatever it is, if it was a real threat someone besides Chrom would've noticed it. Namely, Frederick or Miriel. They're both so meticulous it's almost scary.

Lissa and Ricken are taking a romantic walk around the edge of camp, as they now often do. Plus Donny, the three/four of us are the youngest in the army (with Henry, Olivia, and Maribelle at second, age 18).

Cordelia and Libra have been seeing each other, or so it's said anyway. Olivia and Donny are married, and Chrom and Sumia have a little daughter named Lucina. And a not-so-little daughter from a bad future, whose name is also Lucina. No coincidence,my the way. Again, if you can't follow any of this, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

I have a special someone too. At least, I think so. I'm not really that informed about romance, but I believe it means you are in love if your heart constantly beats faster around someone and causes your face to turn red in their presence.

And there he is now. I can see his shiny silver hair, and his long purple cape. He's doubled over, seemingly in pain. I rush to his side.

"Henry! Henry, are you okay?!" I ask. He turns around, revealing that he was standing over a dead Risen. His ever-present cheerful smile is still as prominent as always.

"Yep! I was just dissecting this Risen corpse, to see if I could figure out how to summon them myself." H explains. I can see a little flaw in his plan, though...

"Um, wouldn't they just attack all living beings in sight, including civilians?" I inquire. He nods. Say what you will about Henry, but no-one can deny that he is honest.

"But we'd kill the enemies much more efficiently, right?" Henry asks back.

"Still, it's much better if we could do it ourselves. That way, we can control whether innocent bystanders' lives are lost." I reply. Henry looks a bit disappointed.

"You sure are a weird one, Aesuni. Plegia's strategist Aversa would've definitely preferred the kind of plan I just suggested!" Henry jokes. At least, I think he's joking. I hope this doesn't mean he hates Chrom's (and my) way of doing things... Uh-oh, please don't say I'm crying...

"There there, you don't have to cry or anything! C'mon, it's nicer for you to be smiling. Like this." Henry pointedly widens his grin, and I feel myself give a little smirk.

"See? Isn't that better?" He asks. I nod.

"Alright, so I won't do anymore experiments with summoning Risen. Ok?" He asks.

"Yes. Thanks, Henry." I smile.

"No problem! Now, it's a bit late to be up, don't you think? See you in the morning!" Henry smiles as he walks off towards his tent. I walk slowly to mine, with a similar smile.

- February 7th -

Today, I feel really guilty. Henry might have taken my words from before too seriously. Earlier in a little skirmish (while escaping Fort Steiger we ran into some Risen), Henry got hurt trying to protect a village even though it was tactically disadvantageous. By the time Lissa reached him, he was nearing death... Even though he's completely healed now (thanks to Lissa's incredible healing magic abilities), I think I'll go check on him.

I find him in a clearing in the forest, chatting with a raven.

"So your name is Nealuchi? How interesting." Henri smiles fondly at the bird, and I feel my heart flutter. He turns as I approach, and the bird flies into a nearby tree.

"Um... Henry? Are you, um, alright? I was a bit worried, since..." I trail off a little. He nods and gestures for me to continue.

"Well, uh, earlier... Earlier in the battle, you defended the townsfolk even though you almost died, and, well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay and all..." I smile, falsely and weakly.

"If I hadn't, someone else just would, right? And I bet it would've been you. You don't last long in a fight, don't you know that? You'd have died, but I'm alright." Henry replies. So he was worried about me? E-eep, I feel so, so... I don't know. I feel kind of fuzzy inside, I guess would be the way to describe it.

"You're unexpectedly... Dutiful is the closest word I can find." I'm kind of losing vocabulary right now, and thinking capacity. I must be tired or something.

"I'm obedient, too. Heck, I always follow orders! Well, except for stupid ones like 'don't fight the enemy.' If someone tried to tell me that, I'd cut 'em in half and feed them to the crows!" Henry gleefully announces.

"Well, that could definitely screw up my plan to keep you safe from now on..." I mutter.

"Huh? What was that?" Henry asks.

"Oh, it's nothing. Well, anyways, goodnight and keep yourself safe in future!" I run off, flustered.

"Hey, wait up, Aesuni! It's not even noon yet!" Henry calls after me.

"Oh, right. Silly me. Um, anyways, since you're here and all, would you mind helping me with some tasks around camp?" I ask.

"Sure!"

- February 14 -

Since last time, Henry has been helping me with a lot of my normal tasks. Usually we run out of time and don't have any time to spare. But its before sunset, and we're actually just finishing up with our last job of the day, namely organizing everyone's battle supplies so that everyone has at least a vulnerary for certain. Secretly, I might have slipped an extra elixir into Henry's pack as well.

"And that's all! Thanks so much again for your help, Henry." I thank him.

"It's no problem, Aesuni. But, what should I do now?" He asks.

"I don't know... Whatever you want to, I guess." I answer.

"Then I'd like to be near you." Henry states matter-of-factly.

"Ah?" I gasp, somewhat shocked.

"You see, you're always so kind to me, and I always have a blast when we are together! I love you more than anyone else!" Henry declares cheerfully. I blush HARD.

"Um... Well, I love you too... I think." I reply. Oh, wait, that didn't come out right!

"The thing is, I don't quite know what love means..." Henry says exactly what I had wanted to.

"I'm not sure either... But I think that this is called, 'True Love'. Since even though we both are not fully informed, we can still recognize it, right?" I explain.

"That's right! Then, I can be blunt with this, right?" Henry pulls a black ring out of his pocket. It's shaped like a vine of ivy.

"A ring?" I ask, surprised. "It looks a little ominous..."

"Don't worry, I'd never curse the one I love!... Did I just... I think I can understand now..." Henry holds the ring out to me. I take it.

"Me too... Thank you. But one condition! You have to promise me one thing..." I reply.

"What thing?" Henry asks.

"That we'll be together forever." I say.

"Of course!" Henry smiles wider than before. Wider, and more serene and honest than any time before.

"I promise to love you with every drop of my blood, till the day I die." Henry announces, before adding interestedly, "Ooh, when do you think that'll be?" I laugh. Henry can be a bit childish at times, but that's part of why he's such a good friend.

_So, did you like it? If so, then review and tell me! If you think I did badly, then review saying what I can do better!_


	2. Spring Renewal Festival

_I refer to the Tellius series in this one a bit, since Olivia is the featured character in this one and she makes a lot of references to Leanne and Naesala in her support with Donny (in the Japanese version, at least)._

~ Happy Spring Festival ~

- February 1 (during two year timeskip) -

I'm Aesuni, a sixteen-year-old tactician in service to Ylisse. I aided in the war against Plegia, about a year ago. But in times of peace, like now, I get to be a normal teen. Or as normal as I can be, anyway.

Right now, I'm in the library of Ylisstol Castle, reading about various customs. I've just found one that takes place right around now, called the Spring Renewal Festival. You give these little jasmine-shaped paper lanterns to all your friends and hang up more lanterns all around. It'd be a real surprise to all my friends if I could do that...

- Several Hours Later -

Gosh, this papercraft stuff is harder than I had thought. ... Yes! Finally! I successfully made one lantern! Now just about twenty more, plus 500 or so to hang and 5 to put on the graves of Emmeryn and Phila, and the other Pegasus knights under Phila's command... This may take awhile. Luckily I've still got two days to go...

- REALLY late that night -

Fourteen good ones... Fifteen, actually. Well, I'm still not tired, so I can make some more without going to bed yet... Actually, I'm really sleepy, but I think everyone could use some cheering up right now, and this is a good excuse to do something cheerful! Now I just have to memorize how to write those rebirth prayers on the lanterns for the graves, and make 510 more lanterns...

- Next Morning -

Thirty-seven down, 479 to go! Hopefully no-one notices me here in the library...

- Three Hours Later -

Yes! I got a surge of energy earlier, so I've made 126 of 526! Only 400 more...

- An Hour Later -

"Aesuni? What are you doing?" I hear someone ask. Lets see, who is that... Olivia! It's Olivia!

"Ah! Oh, Olivia. I'm just making some lanterns for the Spring Rebirth Festival. Please don't tell the others, I want it to be a surprise." I request.

"Oh, okay... Um... Could I help?" Olivia asks.

"If you want to... That'd be great. If there's two of us, we'll definitely be able to do it in time! So..." I explain about what we'll do with the lanterns, and how to make one. In no time, we're in a routine of Olivia folding the lantern sides (she has much more manual dexterity than I do, and she's really good at that) and me putting them together. In a matter of about two hours, we've made 200 more.

- That Night -

"Five hundred twenty five... Five hundred twenty six!" I exclaim gleefully.

"We did it! Yay!" I jump up.

"Wow! We... We got all of these lanterns done!" Olivia smiles.

"Thank you so much! I would never have been able to do this without you, Olivia." I thank her.

"Oh, it was no problem really. I'm glad I could help... It was actually kind of fun." She replies.

"Ah, there is one more thing. We have to write the rebirth prayer on five of these. Those ones are for... Well, they're for five certain graves." I explain.

"I can do that by myself though, it's getting late." I add.

"No, I'll help with that too." Olivia replies. I nod, and in about half an hour we finish the task.

- February 3 -

I wake up bright and early this morning to hang 490 of the lanterns all over the castle. After doing this, I quietly light the candles inside, being careful not to burn the lanterns. Then, I go back to the barracks. Even in this peace, I know everyone likes to come here and relax. So I hang about ten lanterns in here, and wait for someone else to come.

Rather unsurprisingly, the first person here is Sully.

"Oh, hey, Aesuni. You got any idea what's up with all these lanterns all over the place?" Sully asks.

"Yep, sure do! Olivia and I made them over the last few days for the Spring Renewal Festival! Here's one for you." I hand Sully her lantern.

"... What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Well, I guess I'll keep it anyway." Sully replies.

Chrom and Sumia enter the room.

"What's going on with all the lanterns?" Chrom asks. I give him the same answer as I gave Sully, and I give him and Sumia lanterns.

- That Evening -

Well, that celebration of the Spring Renewal Festival was certainly cheerful, just as I planned. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Sully. She and Stahl have been talking to each other most of the night. Since Stahl's first battle with the Risen on the Northroad, their bond has been strengthening rapidly, and rumour has it that Stahl is preparing to propose to her. If so, it'd certainly be the right time to do so tonight. I wonder if Stahl thinks so, too. But for now, I've got something else to do.

Even though we never found Emmeryn's body, she has a grave here in Ylisstol. It's in the castle courtyard, with the graves of Phila and her three elite Pegasus knights forming a ring around it. With a gentle spark of lightning, I light the candle inside of the special lantern I made for Emmeryn, and place it softly beside her gravestone. I begin to sing the Rebirth Hymn.

"Imisanakikenanowot, ooorokokumoroudanetmotikot, uaerufetotetiarahowimay, odihcioumali..." I start to sing in my high-pitched voice, and for the rest of the song, I can hear Olivia's sweet and clear voice as well.

"Ikemazasanoyuosasumezak, otegakomoukuyirutsuinuzimada t usawurufimimeokonotihonak uremishikadesoyiruketedikasi buay,

etitomikuuyami... uamarosawasabutikotemisamior okok, uamaros, uamaros..." By the end of the hymn, I have placed down all of the lanterns and lit them. The light seemed to dance in harmony with our words... It was truly wonderful.

"Olivia, I had no idea your voice was so pretty!" I say. Olivia blushes a little.

"Oh, I'm not that good..." She replies.

"Yes, you certainly are!" I protest.

"Anyway, why are you out here?" I ask.

"For the same reason as you, apparently." She replies. We didn't speak a single word for the rest of the night; all we did was stare reverently at the tiny flames, watching them until they flickered out as we silently prayed for Exalt Emmeryn's soul to find peace and renewal.


	3. Adverse Effects

~ Averting Aversa ~

- November 25 -

My name is Aesuni. I very recently turned 15 years old. I'm a tactician and strategist for the Shepherds, but secretly I'm trying to use the Second Seal to train as a Dark Mage, since with my low resilience in battle I'm little use to anyone. And I've a feeling I may need that training soon, as we are now about to meet with King Gangrel of Plegia to discuss the fate of Lady Maribelle of Themis. If none of this sounds familiar to you, then you may prefer to avert your eyes from this page.

- Later, Same Day -

I'm nervous. So very nervous. Why was I asked to come along, instead of staying with Phila and the other Shepherds? Oh, we're here already?!

Gangrel is standing atop a boulder, alongside a woman dressed in a very... erm... _revealing _outfit. Exalt Emmeryn asks her name, to which she replies,

"You may call me Aversa." It takes me a second to process this, after which point I start to smile a little, and then I have to try not to giggle. Lissa whispers to me, asking what I'm so amused about.

"It's her name." I whisper, explaining about how the word "adverse" means negative or bad. Lissa starts to bite back a snicker too. Chrom shoots us a slightly disapproving look as he and Emmeryn proceed with negotiations.

In a minute, negotiations are over and all heck breaks loose. Plegian soldiers are swarming the pass, while Phila and her elite team of guards escort Emmeryn to safety.

"Shepherds! To arms!" Chrom calls. I draw out my "Wind", then change my mind and switch it for the Flux tome I bought on the Northroad. I grasp my Second Seal tightly.

"Lissa, let's go. We need to rescue Maribelle, right?" I run off towards Maribelle and Aversa, followed closely by Lissa.

"Hold it!" Lissa shouts, along with a slightly more masculine voice. It's Ricken! He shoots a powerful blast of wind at the Plegian soldier holding Maribelle.

"My turn!" I follow suit, launching a shadow flux at Aversa. She hardly bats an eye at it.

"Do you even know how to use dark magic, little girl?" She teases.

"Um, not really. I've just been training in secret for a little while..." I mutter. While Aversa is laughing, Ricken shoots a blast of mighty wind at her. She is knocked back before King Gangrel shouts for her to retreat and leave it to the soldiers.

"Uh-oh, looks like we're surrounded..." Lissa points out.

"Damn, there's no way we can take on this many." I add. Then a plan forms in my mind. If Lissa and I back into a corner and warn each other of any attacks, we should be able to hold out until Chrom gets here. But someone would have to tell him where we are. Maribelle has a horse, so...

"Maribelle, Ricken, could you two pair up and ride down to where Chrom and the other Shepherds are?" I ask. Maribelle nods, and Ricken gets onto her horse behind her.

"Lissa, we'll need good teamwork and a lot of luck for this plan to work. I'll warn you of any attacks so you can dodge, and vice versa. Please lend me some of your magic." I request.

"Ok! Hopefully Chrom and the others get here soon..." Lissa replies.

By the time Chrom and the others arrive, Lissa must be very adept with staves, as must I with dark magic. We're both hanging on to consciousness by a thread, and quite the thin one at that, as we ran out of vulneraries a while ago and Lissa's staff shattered.

"That was either really brave or really stupid." Chrom tells us.

"A bit of both..." I pass out at this point, though luckily Chrom has routed the enemy already.

- A bit over 2 years later, July 18 -

Now we're fighting against Aversa for real. She's mounted on her Pegasus, commanding the most powerful Risen- in other words, this will not be an easy battle.

"We can't take all the Deadlords at once. Lure one in, then rush. Everyone got that?" I ask. Everyone nods.

Twenty-ish minutes later, we've defeated all twelve of the Deadlords. With Henry at my side, I approach Aversa. We talk about her "stage", and then she teases me about last time.

"Still meddling in arts you couldn't possible attain?" She asks.

"I think you'll be surprised. On three, Henry." I take out my Ruin tome, while Henry takes out Waste. "One... Two... Three!" I launch first, landing a blow to a vital area. Henry finishes her. Despite being villainous slime, I feel a little sorry for her. After all, it's becoming more and more apparent that Validar is merely using her. Validar... Even if you truly are my father, I'll kill you with my own two hands!

_Well, this was a little... weirder than I had thought it'd be. Anyhow, please review!_


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